The growth front evolution of ZrO2 thin films deposited by electronic beam evaporation has been studied with atomic force microscopy. The dynamic scaling characteristics are observed during the deposition process. After numerical correlation analysis, the roughness exponent α = 0.80 ± 0.005 and the growth exponentβ = 0.141are all obtained. Based on these results, we suggest that the growth of ZrO2 thin films can be described by the combination of the Edwards-Wilkinson equation, the Mullins diffusion equation and the shadowing effect.